Math Work Stations...for 3rd grade

First off I would like to thank whoever nominated my blog as one of your favorites in the Really Good Stuff classroom blog contest. I am thrilled to know that you find my blog useful! I am so very thankful that I found this tremendous community of educational bloggers who continue to inspire me every day.

There are so many great book studies going on right now but I couldn't be a part of them as I am working my way through a rather technical book about standards based grading-which by the way is extremely interesting and changing the way I've thought about grading for some time now! I did order The Book Whisperer and Math Work Stations and I read them in no time flat. I thought I would focus today's post on my reactions to Math Work Stations. I hope you find it useful, especially if you teach in the intermediate grades.

I have been reading Debbie Diller's Math Work Stations book for the past two weeks. I read her Literacy Work Stations book when I moved from first grade to third grade a few years ago and I loved it. I loved the idea of adding to stations rather than switching them out on a weekly basis. One of the key elements that Ms. Diller mentions in both of her books is that teachers must use the materials they put in their stations in class either as part of a mini-lesson or direct instruction prior to placing them in a station. The more we model, the better our students are able to practice with the materials appropriately. This also makes it very easy when you add materials to a station because the kids are already familiar with it and typically need a brief reminder (at least in third grade).

I use the Everyday Mathematics 3 program in my classroom (the 3 stands for the third revision of the curriculum). I have used it for many years and I am very aware of how much time I am going to be able to realistically devote to math stations...so I am making some adaptations to make it work in my own third grade classroom as I dive in this Fall. With all new things that teachers implement into their classrooms, much tweaking and change undoubtedly occurs as the school year progresses so please just take this post as my initial thoughts on how to integrate math stations as a useful new tool for my kiddos.


Storage and tub contents:

Debbie suggests approximately 10 stations, give or take some depending on your class size. I plan to start the year off with six, one for each mathematics strand. I am learning about standards based grading and plan to move towards grading achievement in each strand of math and reporting that out to parents in lieu of a traditional letter grade for an entire test. This makes sense to me as the checking progress tests (end of unit tests given in Everyday Math) test students progress and mastery on skills within these 6 strands. I am in the process of moving from a giant new classroom to a not so giant mobile and so making new tubs fit is going to be a challenge but one that I find necessary. I made these simple labels (grab them below if you use Everyday Math curriculum at any grade level) for each tub. The first unit of math in third grade is a complete review of all second grade skills in each strand, therefore I think I'll be able to add to each station tub quite quickly during the first weeks of math. I have lots of math books that I was worried about finding a home for in my new mobile but Ms. Diller suggests adding them right into the math station tubs...all I will have to do is determine which "math strand box" to place my book in after I read it to my class. Finally, if you are familiar with Everyday Math you may know that the program offers so many outstanding games that are built right into the main lesson. After I teach the games, they can be stored in the appropriate tub for future use. This is a change from how I have previously stored math games (see photo below) which I actually loved as well. Due to space, I've decided to relocate the games to the "math strand tubs" I am creating when appropriate. I'll let ya know how this idea works out. As the year progresses, I will make math talk cards with key vocabulary and "I Can" lists to tape to the inside cover of each tub (suggested by the author).

How I stored my math games last year:



Labels for my "math strand tubs": You may think these are simple labels and you'd be right! I am trying to redo my labels so all fonts match and are clearly visible without super cute clipart. I am going for a cleaner look...also I think due to space and clutter overload in my new smaller space.



Time frame:

I've decided that doing math stations only on Friday is simply not going satisfy me, however I just can't imagine being able to get to them on a daily basis. So I plan to use them on those days when the math lesson is shorter or when the cooperative group work doesn't take as long, or when students are asked to play a math game that I have already taught. If I've done a good job including other activities throughout the units, then I think I'll be able to use them often enough (2-3 times per week). In her book, Debbie provides amazing colorful photos of sample management boards teachers can use to show students what math stations to go to or if they will be meeting with the teacher on a specific day. These type of management boards are fabulous and work wonders with early primary kids but I moved away from them last year during literacy stations to give my big kids some freedom and choice and they loved it! I did create bookmarks to ensure students moved through my literacy stations rather than continuing to go back to the same one day after day. I may need to do something similar or perhaps use some magnets on my wipe board for those students who I want to meet with....still thinking this one through.

I don't have any photos yet of my tubs as I haven't been back to my mobile other than to take a few photos of the space and move some heavy shelves into place. I am very visual though so I will post some pics when I have some available. I would love to hear your thoughts on how you plan to implement math stations in your classrooms this Fall!